David Moyes can afford to lose rumoured Sporting Kansas City target Winston Reid without impacting West Ham United one iota.

What’s the word?

According to MLSsoccer.com, SKC are open to a permanent move for Reid should the New Zealand international and Major League Soccer outfit agree to there being a mutual benefit in remaining together following his year on loan at the Children's Mercy Park.

Sporting Kansas took a punt on Reid approaching the end of the 2020 winter market after the defender’s relentless onslaught of injuries left the 32-year-old out of action for two calendar years.

Reid is expected to be greeted with a multitude of potential suitors back in England come the New Year once his temporary spell in America is over, having helped SKC to reach the MLS Play-Offs as a frequent member of Peter Vermes’ plans with eight starts in 10 regular-season appearances.

The 25-cap international has re-established himself in the game, too, after shrugging off the early cobwebs to offer Vermes encouraging signs that he can make an impact when needed.

Reid will have two-years remaining on his £70,000-per-week West Ham contract once his Sporting Kansas loan expires, but is unlikely to be afforded a role at the London Stadium having quit the Premier League as David Moyes’ arrival altered the promising picture he anticipated under Manuel Pellegrini.

“I was on the schedule to play games under the previous manager, but then he got fired [and] everything changed,” Reid told The Athletic. “But that’s part of football – sorry, soccer – and I’ve been in football long enough, so I understand the mechanisms.

“And it’s totally fine. West Ham has to do what’s best for the club and I have to do what’s best for me, and I feel really good about this opportunity.”

Sporting Kansas hold an option to turn Reid’s loan spell into a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee.

Set him free

Should Reid and SKC agree that there would be mutual benefit to remaining with one another following his loan spell, West Ham must not stand in the 32-year-old’s way and allow the centre-half to secure a transfer as his future is far from the London Stadium.

Injuries have seen Reid’s importance to the Hammers dissipate with his last outing in claret and blue coming during the 2017/18 campaign, when he was stretchered off during a relegation tussle with Swansea City after his right knee buckled under his own weight early in the first-half.

Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena then arrived in east London that summer, while Moyes has seen the best from Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell in a five-man defence this term.

Reid is a defender of admirable talent and one who former England international Danny Mills insists can pull people together thanks to his commanding presence, but is certainly now one Moyes and West Ham can more than live without.

“Just a voice when things aren’t going quite perfect, a voice of authority, a commanding figure to say: ‘Right, we’re going to do this is what we’re doing, this is what I want you to do.’ It can make such a difference,” Mills told Football Insider.

“It’s not always about how good the player is, it’s the authority that he commands, the respect he has from everyone else and that organisational skill.”

AND in other news, GSB would be heading for disaster replacing a key David Moyes player with a “fantastic” prospect.